Never again, says Burrell

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) has moved to head off a repeat of the embarrassing impasse which almost derailed Jamaica's participation at the recent Digicel Caribbean Cup (DCC) in Martinique.

Future Reggae Boyz will now be required to sign a four-year contract in order to represent the country.

This is one of several decisions that were taken by the JFF's board of directors at a meeting on Wednesday night.

The Reggae Boyz threatened strike action at the regional tournament after both parties failed to agree financial terms around their participation. The players demanded 80 per cent of the US$120,000 prize money ($10.2 million) that the team eventually won, and also pressed the federation for US$1,200 in total per diem for the 12 days of the tournament.

"What took place in Martinique certainly will never be tolerated again. Therefore, we are putting in the necessary controls to ensure that this never happens again," said JFF president, Captain Horace Burrell, who described the latest move as a step to ensure that everyone is on the same page before each assignment.

A unanimous decision was also taken by the board to ban any player guilty of a similar action in the future from representing the country for no less than two years. The DCC players, who publicly apologised for the incident shortly after their return to Jamaica, will also be formally reprimanded

According to Burrell, the contracts, which will span four years, will be issued to the cadre of local and overseas-based players who currently make up the pool at the disposal of head coach Theodore Whitmore, and failure to sign the document before December 30, 2010 will result in that player not being considered for national duty.

Outline responsibilities

Besides the financial terms and commitments, the contracts will also outline the players' responsibility to adhere to the JFF Code of Conduct.

"We are offering them contracts which will outline the terms and conditions as it relates to representation at the national level, and also their conduct. Without a contract, they can always go away and gang up and do the same thing that they did in Martinique and we will be blamed, so we are putting ourselves in a position where everything is clear before everyone leaves the shores of Jamaica," Burrell pointed out.

"Any and every player who is selected for the national team will be offered this contract, we have a cadre of players and it (contract) is mandatory," he continued. "Any player refusing to sign this contract will not be considered, including the overseas players."

Burrell said the players needed to be more mindful of the financial bind that the organisation is currently in, and that they needed to be more sensitive to their roles as the breadwinners of the entire national programme.

"The only income-earning team is the senior Reggae Boyz team and, therefore, they too must recognise that they have to contribute to the development of those who are coming after them, because others before them provided that opportunity for them to get the necessary exposure," said Burrell. "If we have to continue to pay more than we are earning to these players then it's going to mean that we will never be able to finance the other nine programmes that we currently run."

Concerning the actual incident, Burrell labelled it an embarrassment to the Jamaican people but took heart from the players' decision to present an apology.

"It was very unfortunate, it was embarrassing to say the least, it was very unbecoming. The players would have recognised that what they did was very wrong, and they did what we thought was the right thing in accepting that they were wrong," Burrell said.